skiing in saas-fee

so somehow alex managed to find a chalet in saas-fee that we could use for just the last weekend, and it turned out to be just an amazing trip. about 3 hours of train and bus into the car free village of saas fee, walked up a dangerously snowy set of stairs with a ton of gear and happened upon the most awesome chalet. 3 floors, enough beds and room for the 12 of us that were there, balcony, kitchen, wood floors, and jacuzzi! yea sweet digs for sure. with all the snow that night, we just knew that it was gonna be a powder weekend. played some settlers of catan, the most intense game of settlers ever actually, made some ice, chilled out in the jacuzzi, good times all around. went to sleep too late, got up too early, as is usual for ski trips, walked/skiied 10 minutes to the lift. off we go, powder day number one. it's a bit cold, but beautiful snow. lots of lifts, lots of snow, great day. dropped some cliffs, skiied some pow, fell in the soft snow, all good.

walked all the way back to the chalet, partaking in some apres ski drinks to people dancing in ski boots, hot wine, and jaegertee which i do not need to have again. 80's pop music, pretty much oktoberfest round 2 in a ski town. very cool walking/skiing through the town, there are no cars so narrow streets, people walking, chalets everywhere, ski shops, very very cool, once in a lifetime experience that's for sure. settled down and had some hearty beef stew, played some innocent card games, ended up going out to the town, hit the apres ski bars, danced a bit, in particular in sneakers and long underwear and sweat pants. going home and to bed early again didn't work. felt really great the next day though, sunny day, warmed than the last, and still just as much snow, with the runs all groomed to corduroy too. explored a lot of the mountain, found lots of fresh powder stashes, carved some beauty lines, took some lifts. also there is mountain train/funicular type thing at 3000m that takes you to the glacier at 3500m or so. that thing was whipping along like at 50km/h i swear. so ridiculous, only in switzerland would they build that. definitely a bit short of breath at the top though, but it was a nice long run back down to the bottom. went back to clean up the chalet, chilled out, a nice long (almost direct) train ride home with some great friends and great conversation, definitely one of the better weekends for sure.

good times all around, it's been snowing a lot in baden lately, feet are kind of wet and the sidewalks are slippery. nothing like delicious leek potato onion soup on a cold day also. this weekend, thinking about trying to make some beef noodle soup, maybe go sledding, also want to go ski one day as well. work is still the same, the rate at which is read news and comics is appalling. almost olympics, i am looking forward to that.